Sun, Sea and Someday
by harinezumiko
Summary: Mokuba decides his brother needs a little summer loving, and books a beach vacation. Kaiba is less than thrilled at the prospect.


Contrary to popular belief, Seto Kaiba enjoyed summer. He enjoyed the benefit of the powerful air conditioning in the KaibaCorp offices. He enjoyed the long, sunny days that gave his work hours a patina of acceptability. He enjoyed people leaving to go on vacations, therefore not being in his office, bothering him.

It was really rather rude of Yami to put paid to that solitary enjoyment of the season by barging in with Mokuba. Kaiba looked up, saw Yami insouciantly sucking on the straw of an iced coffee, and looked back to his screen, typing with renewed fervour.

"I'm busy, Mokuba," Kaiba said pointedly. "Wait for me at home."

"No, you're not," said Mokuba, arms crossed and head held high. "Check your calendar, Nii-sama."

Kaiba cast a suspicious glance at Yami as he flung the mouse pointer over. Yami stared intently at a patch of wall somewhere to Kaiba's right. Kaiba looked back to the screen and grimaced.

"Mokuba, the President of KaibaCorp does not take a 'vacay'."

"Vice President's orders," grinned Mokuba. "I can change it to 'administrative leave' if you want. Or 'debeachery'?"

Kaiba hit a few keys, trying to delete the intruder and get his prior appointments back, but Mokuba had locked it down well. He could break it of course, given time, but that wasn't how he'd planned to spend the rest of the day.

"Pack your deck," said Yami over his shoulder, as he sashayed out of the office uninvited. "You'll need it."

Kaiba's fingers tightened their grip around the mouse.

* * *

Kaiba strode down the green path towards the beach house, his eyes locked on Yami waiting ahead. Mokuba ran in front to greet Yugi with a hug.

"We'd have been here sooner," said Mokuba, sticking his tongue out at his elder brother, "but someone decided he had to invent waterproof card sleeves."

"You'll be needing these," said Kaiba, flinging a pack at Yami, who caught it smoothly. A hint of a smile on Yami's face made Kaiba's fingers twitch.

"I guess he's keen to test them and get some feedback," said Mokuba, linking his arm with Yugi's and dragging him inside the house.

"And I'm keen to test you," said Yami as Kaiba reached him. Kaiba swept past him into the house with a humph.

The place was smaller than he was used to, and decorated in a plain old-fashioned way. A curly-furred teddybear sat on the main room's small square table, patiently guarding a bowl of fruit and a note from the property's owner. Kaiba slid the latter toward himself and availed himself of the most pertinent piece of information – the wifi access code.

"We were thinking we'd go for a walk around the area," said Yugi cheerfully, "and then grab a bite to eat."

"Great!" Mokuba said. "I'm getting hungry. We can unpack later, Nii-sama."

Kaiba reluctantly agreed. He supposed he could stay his urge to accost Yami alone for the length of time it took to ensure Mokuba was fed. Mokuba often got the angry sort of hungry, and Kaiba didn't want to be dealing with that on their first day away.

There was a private path down to the beach, uneven, gravelled steps hewn out of the rock. The song of birds and insects mingled in the shade of trees. Kaiba walked behind the main group, and after a while, Yami dropped back to join him.

"I hope you'll be pleased," said Yami. "I made some changes since we last duelled."

"As did I." Kaiba stared ahead at the horizon, the sea now making itself known through the greenery. "It's the obligation of any duelist to keep their deck running at its best."

"Of course." Yami fell silent. He pushed his hands into the pockets of his too-tight, season-inappropriate black leather trousers, the motion drawing attention to the movement of his hips as he walked.

Kaiba felt a bead of sweat roll down his forehead and stick to his bangs.

The tide had come in when they reached the beachfront, greedily swallowing up the white sand and lapping at the rocks that lined the path. A street sparsely populated with timber-framed houses and dilapidated shopfronts looked out to the gradually darkening sky. It was a far cry from the light and noise of Domino, and it made Kaiba antsy about the work he had left behind. He pulled his phone from his pocket and checked his emails compulsively, one eye on the cracked street to avoid a fall.

Kaiba felt a hand on his arm, gently pulling it downwards.

Mokuba looked up at him with a sigh. "Do I have to hack that too?"

"Mokuba, it's irresponsible for the President and Vice President to leave the office at the same time. I need to be available."

"They can manage without us for two days." Mokuba stopped in front of a noodle bar to study the menu. "It's a shorter time than you normally take to run your tournaments."

"I'm available between matches," retorted Kaiba.

"Yeah, and you run yourself down with lack of sleep and are useless for a week after you get back to work."

"I am not useless."

"Are too." Mokuba slipped his shoes off to enter the restaurant, the others following suit.

"We could make this a mini-tournament," said Yami as they settled themselves on cushions at a low table. "Each of us duels the other over the course of the vacation."

Mokuba rolled his eyes. "You two really do have a one-track mind."

* * *

Mokuba and Yugi insisted that they all visit the beach the next day. There was a delayed start as each made sure their counterpart had proper beach attire. Shorts trimmed Kaiba's long proportions to something more normal-seeming. Yami complained of being cold in his sleeveless tank, but Kaiba had to admire the glow of his skin against the white. Both packed their duel disks alongside the water and bento boxes in the cool box.

The sun was high by the time they had reached the sand and set up towels and parasol. Yugi and Mokuba seemed perfectly happy to lounge in the shade, eat melon, and chat. To Kaiba, it seemed like a ridiculous waste of time. He decided to pace the beach front to make his petty displeasure known.

A soft patter of sandals came up beside him. "Going somewhere?" said Yami.

Kaiba looked at Yami, his absurd hair pulled back into a stubby ponytail, and huffed.

"This isn't your idea of a good time, is it," said Yami.

"How observant." Kaiba walked on, but he did slow the pace of his stride to permit Yami to keep up.

Yami danced in front of him, walking backwards. "Are you up for a challenge?"

Kaiba felt the fire rising in his veins. "I'll get my duel disk."

"That's not what I meant," Yami pointed further down the beach. Something colourful jutted out of the water in friendly bubble-like shapes. Children scrambled eagerly across its inflated expanse, giggling as they bounced, cheering as they fell into the water.

"An assault course." Kaiba looked at Yami with a derisive grin. "Ridiculous."

Yami raised his eyebrows and smirked.

"You're on," said Kaiba, and made a run for the first wacky obstacle.

* * *

They limped back to Yugi and Mokuba for lunch, having to regretfully conclude that neither of them had emerged a clear winner due to the tricky rotating log section in the middle that had given both Kaiba and Yami a dunking more than once. Kaiba had also argued that it didn't count without an official referee. They had therefore agreed not to speak of the matter to the others.

Kaiba's shorts clung to his legs, though the heat of the sun was already starting to dry them. Yami was wringing out his tank. The act exposed prominent hipbones born as much of diet as exercise. Yugi and Mokuba had been talking, but Mokuba nudged Yugi at the others' approach and they stopped their chatter.

Mokuba looked at Kaiba with a devilish expression. "Did you two have fun?"

"I wouldn't call any of this 'fun'," said Kaiba, uncharitably.

"We did," said Yami, the traitor.

Yugi and Mokuba laughed, a joke that Kaiba was not in on. He tucked into his bento box with vengeful gusto.

* * *

The day wore on and the beach's charms grew thinner. The parasol came down, the towels were rolled, empty containers thrown in the recycling. Yami looked at the duel disks languishing in the cool box, and across to Kaiba.

"It seems a shame to bring them all this way and not use them," pouted Yami.

Yugi exchanged a look with Mokuba and patted Yami's arm affectionately. "We'll take this back to the house. Stay out as late as you want."

"You don't need to tell Seto twice," said Mokuba, pushing his brother forward with a grin. "You got this, Nii-sama!"

The two of them scampered off, leaving Kaiba and Yami standing on the beach.

"What's gotten into Mokuba," said Kaiba. He strapped his duel disk on to save carrying it, and Yami followed suit. It felt right on his arm. Yami felt right at his side. "Sunstroke, maybe."

"It's possible," Yami laughed. "Come on, this way. I found somewhere secluded on the map."

"Secluded?" Kaiba said. "You don't want to give these people a show by two kings of the game?"

"One King," teased Yami. "If you want this crown, come and take it!"

"Oh, I intend to."

They walked away from the beach to the street, and then down a rocky path that wound back towards the ocean. It opened into a large cave, one end open right to the water. The tide washed up pebbles to their sandalled feet.

"The tide's on its way out," said Yami, "we won't get cut off."

"That's a shame," said Kaiba. "We could have used it as a time limit."

"I'd like to play just one duel against you where the stakes aren't that high," said Yami.

"In my world, the stakes are always high." Kaiba activated his duel disk and slammed his newly sleeved cards into the deck slot.

* * *

The Solid Vision monsters sparked out of existence as their duel disks snapped shut. The sky had faded to pink through the inlet behind them, the sunlight casting shimmering flecks on the surface of the ochre waters.

"I will defeat you," said Kaiba by way of congratulation, as he lowered his arm.

"I'm counting on it," said Yami.

A chill was beginning to set in to the ocean air. Kaiba could have stayed to duel Yami all night despite that, but his deck clearly needed some tweaks to cope with Yami's new strategy and there was no point in continuing to lose. He swept past Yami, heading for the path back.

"Kaiba!" Yami called after him. Kaiba stopped, turning his head back towards the other.

"Kaiba," Yami said again, softer this time. The look on his face was strange and uncertain. "What am I to you?"

Kaiba frowned, trying to reconcile Yami's expression with the fierce duelist he knew. "You're my rival."

"Is that it?" Yami gave a harsh chuckle. "So we're just connected by our desire to duel and beat one another?"

"What else is there?" Kaiba's voice cracked, his legs suddenly as unsteady as the wash of the waves.

The last rays of light hit the blond bangs of Yami's hair, framing his face with a glow like a second sun. "Would you like to find out?" he said softly.

Step by hesitant step, Kaiba felt himself pulled towards Yami by some invisible cord. Yami raised a tentative hand to Kaiba's cheek.

The sun sank below the horizon, and in the darkness Kaiba found Yami's light.

* * *

Written for xYukiYaminox as part of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Shipfest Discord Server's Secret Summer & Winter Event. I hope you like it! 3

As this is a giftfic, criticism is not requested at this time.


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